The ukulele is generally played using one finger to strum, and is held against your body with the right arm. No straps, no picks, no props. At least, that's the way we do it here. I don't know if they used picks in the 40's. I have a fake book in which many of the songs, especially from the 20's and 30's, have ukulele chords rather than guitar chords, with a notation at the top, "Tune uke: GCEA" or ADF#B, or whatever.   Standard tuning, by the way, is GCEA from "bottom" to "top" (that's actually top to bottom in terms of physical position when you're holding the instrument!) But the G string is tuned an octave up, so its actual pitch is just one step below the top A string. (Hence the classic "My dog has fleas" tuning tune.) That holds true for all but the baritone uke, which is tuned DGBE, like the top four strings on the guitar. Got it?

Aloha,
Mark